U.S. patent application number 17/589546 was filed with the patent office on 2022-05-19 for methods and apparatus for radio station monitoring using unmanned aerial vehicles.
The applicant listed for this patent is The Nielsen Company (US), LLC. Invention is credited to Gloria Bautista, Timothy Christian, Mohammed Sayed.
Application Number | 20220155786 17/589546 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | |
Filed Date | 2022-05-19 |
United States Patent
Application |
20220155786 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Christian; Timothy ; et
al. |
May 19, 2022 |
METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR RADIO STATION MONITORING USING UNMANNED
AERIAL VEHICLES
Abstract
Methods, apparatus, and systems are disclosed for performing
radio station monitoring using unmanned aerial vehicles. An example
unmanned aerial vehicle disclosed herein includes at least one
memory, computer readable instructions, and processor circuitry to
execute the computer readable instructions to control the unmanned
aerial vehicle to travel to a first radio station site to monitor a
radio broadcast associated with the first radio station site,
detect a watermark in the radio broadcast, and report at least one
of the detected watermark or information associated with the
detected watermark to a remote receiver.
Inventors: |
Christian; Timothy; (Palm
Harbor, FL) ; Sayed; Mohammed; (Santa Clara, CA)
; Bautista; Gloria; (Pembroke Pines, FL) |
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Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
The Nielsen Company (US), LLC |
New York |
NY |
US |
|
|
Appl. No.: |
17/589546 |
Filed: |
January 31, 2022 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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16360982 |
Mar 21, 2019 |
11237559 |
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17589546 |
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International
Class: |
G05D 1/00 20060101
G05D001/00; G05D 1/10 20060101 G05D001/10; H04B 17/10 20060101
H04B017/10 |
Claims
1. An unmanned aerial vehicle, the vehicle comprising: at least one
memory; computer readable instructions; and processor circuitry to
execute the computer readable instructions to: control the unmanned
aerial vehicle to travel to a first radio station site to monitor a
radio broadcast associated with the first radio station site;
detect a watermark in the radio broadcast; and report at least one
of the detected watermark or information associated with the
detected watermark to a remote receiver.
2. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 1, wherein the processor
circuitry is to control the unmanned aerial vehicle to visit
multiple radio station locations based on a schedule.
3. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 2, wherein the schedule
includes a condition based on available power of the unmanned
aerial vehicle.
4. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 1, wherein the processor
circuitry is to control the unmanned aerial vehicle to perform a
troubleshooting operation associated with the first radio station
site in response to identification by the unmanned aerial vehicle
of a watermark error in the radio broadcast.
5. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 4, wherein the processor
circuitry is to cause the unmanned aerial vehicle to: travel to
different quadrants of a radio station antenna associated with the
first radio station site; and perform watermark detection in
respective ones of the different quadrants.
6. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 4, wherein the processor
circuitry is to control the unmanned aerial vehicle to park until
deployment to the first radio station site is initiated, the
deployment to the first radio station site based on a Global
Positioning System auto-pilot flight path.
7. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 1, wherein the processor
circuitry is to control the unmanned aerial vehicle to park at the
first radio station site while monitoring the radio broadcast.
8. A method for performing radio station monitoring using an
unmanned aerial vehicle, the method comprising: controlling, by
executing an instruction with at least one processor, the unmanned
aerial vehicle to travel to a first radio station site to monitor a
radio broadcast associated with the first radio station site;
detecting, by executing an instruction with at least one processor,
a watermark in the radio broadcast; and reporting, by executing an
instruction with at least one processor, at least one of the
detected watermark or information associated with the detected
watermark to a remote receiver.
9. The method of claim 8, further including controlling the
unmanned aerial vehicle to visit multiple radio station locations
based on a schedule.
10. The method of claim 9, wherein the schedule includes a
condition based on available power of the unmanned aerial
vehicle.
11. The method of claim 8, further including controlling the
unmanned aerial vehicle to perform a troubleshooting operation
associated with the first radio station site in response to
identification by the unmanned aerial vehicle of a watermark error
in the radio broadcast.
12. The method of claim 11, wherein the troubleshooting operation
includes causing the unmanned aerial vehicle to travel to different
quadrants of a radio station antenna of the first radio station to
perform watermark detection in the different quadrants.
13. The method of claim 8, further including controlling the
unmanned aerial vehicle to park until deployment to the first radio
station is initiated.
14. The method of claim 13, wherein the deployment to the station
based on a Global Positioning System auto-pilot flight path.
15. An unmanned aerial vehicle, the vehicle comprising: means for
controlling the unmanned aerial vehicle to travel to a first radio
station site to monitor a radio broadcast associated with the first
radio station site; means for detecting a watermark in the radio
broadcast; and means for reporting at least one of the detected
watermark or information associated with the detected watermark to
a remote receiver.
16. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 15, wherein the means for
controlling is to control the unmanned aerial vehicle to visit
multiple radio station locations based on a schedule.
17. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 16, wherein the schedule
includes a condition based on available power of the unmanned
aerial vehicle.
18. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 15, wherein the means for
controlling is to control the unmanned aerial vehicle to perform a
troubleshooting operation associated with the first radio station
in response to identification by the unmanned aerial vehicle of a
watermark error in the received radio broadcast.
19. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 18, wherein to perform the
troubleshooting operation, the means for controlling is to cause
the unmanned aerial vehicle to travel to different quadrants of a
radio station antenna of the first radio station to perform
watermark detection with a watermark decoder in the different
quadrants.
20. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 15, wherein the means for
controlling is to control the unmanned aerial vehicle to park until
deployment to the first radio station is initiated, the deployment
to the station based on a Global Positioning System auto-pilot
flight path.
Description
RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This patent arises from a continuation of U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 16/360,982, now U.S. patent Ser. No. ______,
filed on Mar. 21, 2019. Priority to U.S. patent application Ser.
No. 16/360,982 is claimed. U.S. patent application Ser. No.
16/360,982 is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its
entirety.
FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE
[0002] This disclosure relates generally to radio station
monitoring, and, more particularly, to methods and apparatus for
radio station monitoring using unmanned aerial vehicles.
BACKGROUND
[0003] The proliferation of radio channels delivering various forms
of content to the pubic engages millions of listeners worldwide.
Monitoring the media (e.g., programming content, commercials, etc.)
being aired is of interest to content owners, copyright holders,
distributors, broadcasters, etc. Watermarking media (e.g., audio
watermarking) enables the identification of media such as radio
broadcasts and radio advertisements and can be used to identify the
station or channel to which a receiver is tuned. Watermarking
techniques include embedding one or more codes into an audio
component of the media to convey media identifying information.
Extraction and decoding of the watermark permits the mapping of the
watermark to media identifying information. The ability to gather
the data contained in the watermark allows content owners and
copyright holders to, for example, evaluate the true reach of media
assets, confirm and prove content broadcast and usage, communicate
content rights and intent, identify potential misappropriations of
assets, etc.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0004] FIG. 1 is an illustration of an example use of unmanned
aerial vehicle(s) for purposes of monitoring multiple radio
stations according to a schedule.
[0005] FIG. 2 is an illustration of an example use of an unmanned
aerial vehicle dedicated to a particular radio station for purposes
of monitoring.
[0006] FIG. 3 is an illustration of an example use of an unmanned
aerial vehicle for deployment to a radio station on an as-needed
basis.
[0007] FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an example implementation of
the unmanned aerial vehicles in FIGS. 1-3 to perform radio station
monitoring in accordance with the teachings of this disclosure.
[0008] FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an example implementation of a
monitoring controller of unmanned aerial vehicles in FIGS. 1-3 to
perform radio station monitoring in accordance with the teachings
of this disclosure.
[0009] FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an example
configuration of unmanned aerial vehicles of FIGS. 1-3 to perform
radio station monitoring.
[0010] FIG. 7 is a flowchart representative of example
machine-readable instructions that may be executed by the unmanned
aerial vehicles of FIGS. 1-3 to monitor multiple radio stations
according to a schedule.
[0011] FIG. 8 is a flowchart representative of example
machine-readable instructions that may be executed by the unmanned
aerial vehicles of FIGS. 1-3 to monitor a particular radio station
to which an unmanned aerial vehicle is dedicated.
[0012] FIG. 9 is a flowchart representative of example
machine-readable instructions that may be executed by the unmanned
aerial vehicles of FIGS. 1-3 to deploy to a radio station on an
as-needed basis.
[0013] FIG. 10 is a flowchart representative of example
machine-readable instructions that may be executed by the unmanned
aerial vehicle of FIG. 6 using the monitoring controller of FIG. 5
to perform unmanned aerial vehicle configuration.
[0014] FIG. 11 is a block diagram of an example processing platform
structured to execute the instructions of FIG. 7-10 to implement
the example unmanned aerial vehicle of FIG. 4.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0015] Methods, apparatus, and systems to monitor radio stations
using unmanned aerial vehicle watermark monitors are disclosed.
Example apparatus to perform radio station monitoring using an
unmanned aerial vehicle disclosed herein includes a radio receiver
to receive a radio broadcast from at least one radio station, a
watermark detector to detect a watermark in the received radio
broadcast, and a communication transceiver to report at least one
of a detected watermark or information associated with the detected
watermark to a remote receiver.
[0016] These and other example methods, apparatus, and systems to
monitor radio stations using unmanned aerial vehicle watermark
monitors are disclosed in further detail below. As used herein, the
term "media" refers to content and/or advertisements. Furthermore,
as used herein, the term "media" includes any type of content
and/or advertisement delivered via radio broadcasting. Media
watermarking, such as audio watermarks, allows for the
identification of media, such as radio broadcasts and
advertisements, to identify the station or channel to which a
receiver is tuned. Media watermarking consists of embedding one or
more codes (e.g., one or more watermarks) conveying media
identifying information and/or an identifier that may be mapped to
media identifying information. An audio watermark may be embedded
at a broadcast facility and carry digital data in the form of
symbols. In some examples, the audio component is selected to have
a signal characteristic sufficient to hide the watermark and the
information is embedded into the signal in a way that is difficult
to remove. As used herein, the terms "code" and "watermark" are
used interchangeably and are defined to mean any identification
information (e.g., an identifier) that may be inserted or embedded
in the audio or video of media (e.g., a program or advertisement)
for the purpose of identifying the media or for another purpose,
such as tuning (e.g., a packet identifying header), copyright
protection, etc. In some examples, to identify watermarked media,
the watermark(s) are extracted and, for example, decoded and/or
used to access a table of reference watermarks that are mapped to
media identifying information.
[0017] Audience measurement techniques can be used to help
broadcasters and/or advertisers determine information about their
radio listenership based on media watermarking. For example, a
portable metering device can be used to capture the audio emanating
from a media device such as a radio in a user's home or other
location, such as an automobile. Panelists are users who have
provided demographic information at the time of registration into a
panel, allowing their demographic information to be linked to the
media they choose to listen to or view. As a result, the panelists
represent a statistically significant sample of the large
population of radio consumers, for example, which allow
broadcasting companies and advertisers to better understand who is
utilizing their media content and maximize revenue potential. For
example, audience measurement entities (AMEs) such as The Nielsen
Company (US), LLC may provide a portable people meter (PPMs) to
their panelists. The metering device can perform signal processing
of the audio conveyed to a radio broadcast to extract the watermark
symbols. An example watermark that is widely used is the Critical
Band Encoding Technology (CBET) watermark invented by Jensen, et
al. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,450,490 and 5,764,763, which are
incorporated herein by reference. CBET watermarking consists of a
data packet with 32 bits: 16 bits used for purposes of station
identification and 16 bits used for a timestamp. For example, once
a PPM has retrieved the watermark, the PPM can transmit the
complete or partial watermark back to an AME. Besides watermarking
using CBET, there are other encoding systems that insert an
identifier into audio media. For example, the Nielsen Audio Encode
System II (also known as NAES2) can insert a Nielsen source
identifier and timestamp into, for example, an audio signal.
Examples of watermarking techniques for encoding watermarks into
media signals, such as audio signals, which can be supported by the
teachings of this disclosure are described in U.S. Pat. No.
8,359,205, entitled "Methods and Apparatus to Perform Audio
Watermarking and Watermark Detection and Extraction," which issued
on Jan. 22, 2013, U.S. Pat. No. 8,369,972, entitled "Methods and
Apparatus to Perform Audio Watermarking Detection and Extraction,"
which issued on Feb. 5, 2013, U.S. Publication No. 2010/0223062,
entitled "Methods and Apparatus to Perform Audio Watermarking and
Watermark Detection and Extraction," which was published on Sep. 2,
2010, U.S. Pat. No. 6,871,180, entitled "Decoding of Information in
Audio Signals," which issued on Mar. 22, 2005, U.S. Pat. No.
5,764,763, entitled "Apparatus and Methods for Including Codes in
Audio Signals and Decoding," which issued on Jun. 9, 1998, U.S.
Pat. No. 5,574,962, entitled "Method and Apparatus for
Automatically Identifying a Program Including a Sound Signal,"
which issued on Nov. 12, 1996, U.S. Pat. No. 5,581,800, entitled
"Method and Apparatus for Automatically Identifying a Program
Including a Sound Signal," which issued on Dec. 3, 1996, U.S. Pat.
No. 5,787,334, entitled "Method and Apparatus for Automatically
Identifying a Program Including a Sound Signal," which issued on
Jul. 28, 1998, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,450,490, entitled "Apparatus and
Methods for Including Codes in Audio Signals and Decoding," which
issued on Sep. 12, 1995, all of which are hereby incorporated by
reference in their respective entireties.
[0018] An example CBET watermark is constructed using symbols
representing 4 bits of data. Each of the symbols is encoded in 400
milliseconds of the media audio component and is created by
embedding a particular set of 10 tones representing each symbol,
with different sets of tones being used to represent different
symbol values. Each of the tones belongs to a band of code
consisting of several closely-spaced frequencies of the audio
(e.g., 1-3 kHz frequency range for CBET watermarking). The 400
millisecond symbol block boundaries are typically not known to the
meter decoding process, and a scan capturing a 256 millisecond
window across an audio stream is performed. Given that environments
in which radio audience measurements are performed can consist of a
high ambient noise environment (e.g., a moving vehicle), the energy
of embedded watermark tones can determine how well these watermarks
can be detected. Therefore, it is important that watermarks
embedded into radio broadcasts are properly encoded to ensure that
the watermarks can be reliably detected in various listening
environments. For example, a radio station may have a watermark
monitor operating with a wired connection to its watermark encoder,
and/or a monitor tuner to monitor the broadcast radio signal and
confirm the watermarks are embedded properly in the transmitted
signal. Watermark encoding that is not of good quality may cause
the decoder to take longer to identify the watermark data, if the
decoder is able to identify the watermark at all. A long response
time needed to acquire a station identification conveyed by a
watermark, for example, may also be an indicator that non-ideal
listening environments may cause the station identification process
to fail. As a result, identification of signal-to-noise ratio in
various listening environments may help determine how to achieve
successful decoding of the watermarks.
[0019] Media monitoring sites (MMSs) can be used to monitor radio
station broadcasts to ensure that radio stations are producing
optimally encoded watermarks. MMSs, for example, listen for
broadcasts from radio stations to verify that the proper watermark
encoding is employed (e.g., configured) to encode the respective
watermarks. For example, an MMS can be used to verify that
watermarks embedded in a given radio station broadcast contain
correct data (e.g., station identifier, programming identifiers,
etc.) In the event the wrong encoding is included or an encoding is
not detected, the MMSs communicate with AME back offices to begin
the troubleshooting process. However, while the infrastructure
(e.g., site leases) and operating costs for MMSs may be justifiable
in more populated areas with large television and radio audiences
and large concentrations of radio stations, more remote areas that
require monitoring and data collection may be more expensive or
less cost efficient to maintain. Likewise, the installation of MMSs
for purposes of monitoring watermark quality can be time-consuming,
involving permitting and construction. Therefore, there is a need
to validate radio station broadcast watermarks using means other
than the construction and maintenance of MMSs, especially in areas
that are not densely populated and/or that have a lower
concentration of radio stations.
[0020] Example methods, systems and apparatus disclosed herein are
directed towards using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to perform
radio station monitoring in lieu of, or to augment or replace,
MMSs. Examples disclosed herein allow for a reduction in cost
associated with maintenance of MMSs by using lower-cost UAVs
outfitted with a radio receiver, a watermark decoder and a
communications (e.g., cellular, Wi-Fi, etc.) transceiver to fly to
specified locations to monitor radio broadcasts. Examples disclosed
herein allow versatile monitoring of radio stations by allowing
UAVs to be programmed to visit radio stations based on a desired
schedule. Examples disclosed herein allow one or more UAV(s) to
perform radio station monitoring. Examples disclosed herein allow
UAVs to monitor watermark quality and check for malfunctions of the
radio station's broadcast signal. Examples disclosed herein enable
the monitoring of stations in remote areas where the construction
of MMSs to perform this monitoring is not feasible. Examples
disclosed herein further reduce the need to send company
representatives to sites that may be difficult to reach for
purposes of troubleshooting situations that can instead be handled
using UAV-based monitoring and troubleshooting capacities.
[0021] While examples disclosed herein are described in connection
with radio station monitoring, disclosed techniques may also be
used in connection with monitoring of other types of stations with
broadcasting capability, such as television stations.
[0022] FIG. 1 is an illustration of an example environment of use
100 including example unmanned aerial vehicle(s) to monitor
multiple radio stations according to a schedule. In the illustrated
example of FIG. 1, an example unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) 108 can
be deployed to a first radio station (e.g., radio station A) to
perform monitoring, followed by visits to other stations that the
UAV 108 is scheduled to visit (e.g., radio stations B-D). The UAV
108 can be deployed based on a schedule (e.g., hourly basis, daily
basis, etc.). However, the schedule can be updated conditionally
based on different variables that influence the performance of the
UAV. For example, the schedule can be updated based on the
available power of the UAV (e.g., fly to the second radio station
at a specified time if remaining power of UAV is greater than an
estimated amount of power, threshold amount of power, etc., needed
to complete the flight path before accessing a power generator or
other means of, for example, recharging drone batteries). For
example, at time 110, the UAV 108 is programmed to take an example
flight path 111 to a first example station, radio station A. Once
the UAV 108 has reached the radio station A at example time 112,
the UAV 108 performs monitoring of the radio broadcast in
accordance with the teachings of this disclosure to check whether
the station is producing properly-encoded watermarks. The UAV 108
may also check other functions of the radio station, such as the
power of the radio station broadcast signal. Upon completion of
monitoring, the UAV 108 may be scheduled to proceed to a next
example radio station, station B, by following the example flight
path 114. At time 116, the UAV 108 arrives at the radio station B
to perform monitoring of radio station B, followed by travelling an
example flight path 118 to example radio station C to perform
monitoring starting from example time 120. The UAV 108 proceeds to
the last station on its monitoring list, example radio station D,
by following example flight path 122. In the illustrated example,
the UAV 108 monitors the station D and returns to the starting
point (e.g., home base) where the UAV 108 was parked at time 110.
In some examples, the UAV 108 may return to the initial radio
station (e.g., radio station A) that it had visited at time 112, to
perform the monitoring again at example time 128 in accordance with
the programmed schedule (e.g., if the UAV 108 was programmed to
visit the stations on an hourly basis and/or some other interval).
For example, if the UAV 108 was scheduled to visit the station on a
cyclic (e.g., hourly) basis, the UAV 108 returns to station B,
station C, and station D at times 130, 132, and 134, respectively.
In some examples, the UAV 108 may follow the same flight path
(e.g., flight paths 114, 118, and 122) to travel from one station
to the next. In some examples, the flight paths might be adjusted
based on other variables, such as weather conditions, UAV range, or
the need to recharge the UAV battery, etc. In some examples, the
UAV 108 can have software programmed onto a commodity device such
as Raspberry Pi, Arduino and/or onto any other processor or
processors, to control operation of the UAV 108. In some examples,
the UAV 108 schedule of radio station monitoring may be adjusted
based on monitoring needs. In some examples, the number of radio
stations monitored by the UAV 108 may be increased or decreased. In
some examples, more than one UAV 108 (e.g., as part of a fleet of
UAVs) may be deployed to a radio station to access a radio
broadcast and perform monitoring.
[0023] FIG. 2 is an illustration of an example environment of use
200 in which an unmanned aerial vehicle is dedicated to a
particular radio station for purposes of monitoring. In the example
of FIG. 2, an example UAV 208 can be parked at a UAV parking
location (e.g., an example home base 209). The UAV 208 is
programmed to fly to its dedicated radio station (e.g., example
station A) using example flight path 210. Once the UAV 208 arrives
at station A, the UAV 208 can park at a UAV parking spot 212 to
perform monitoring in order to conserve power and permit longer
duration monitoring within the UAV's maximum flight time and flight
range. In some examples, the UAV 208 can return to the home base
209 if the UAV 208 needs to be recharged or for maintenance
purposes. In some examples, the UAV 208 may be able to recharge at
an example radio station parking site 212. In some examples, more
than one UAV 208 (e.g., as part of a fleet of UAVs) may be
dedicated to a particular radio station (e.g., radio station A),
based on monitoring needs and the lasting potential (e.g.,
battery/power capacity, flight range, etc.) of UAV 208 to perform
the monitoring, so as to extend the monitoring lifetime of the UAV
fleet.
[0024] FIG. 3 is an illustration of an example environment of use
300 in which an unmanned aerial vehicle is deployed to a radio
station on an as-needed basis. For example, several stations (e.g.,
example stations A-E) may be monitored to detect whether each radio
station signal exhibits normal operation 314 or is exhibiting
malfunctions 316. If a particular station (e.g., station C)
exhibits potential signal malfunctions 316, an example UAV 308 can
be deployed to check for and debug any radio-frequency (RF) related
malfunctions that are confirmed at the site. The UAV 308 may be
deployed based on an example flight path 310 to the radio station
exhibiting signal malfunction (e.g., radio station C). At station
C, the UAV 308 may be controlled to fly around the radio station's
antenna(s) (e.g., using an example flight path 312, such as a
substantially circular flight path, within an error tolerance,
around the radio station based on a programmed radius/distance from
the radio station) to monitor signal 316 strength and watermark
detectability of the accessed radio broadcast. In some examples,
the UAV 308 may identify particular quadrant(s) exhibiting RF
problems. In some examples, the UAV 308 may be deployed to other
radio stations (e.g., radio stations A, B, D or E) that may be
exhibiting similar signal problems. In some examples, more the one
UAV (e.g., as part of a fleet of UAVs) may be deployed to monitor a
given radio station (e.g., radio station C) exhibiting signal
problems.
[0025] FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an example implementation of an
example UAV 400 to perform radio station monitoring. The example
UAV 400 can be used to implement one or more of the UAVs 108, 208,
and/or 308 of FIGS. 1-3. The example of FIG. 4 illustrates aspects
of the UAV 400 that implement radio station monitoring in
accordance with the teachings of this disclosure. Other
implementation aspects directed to typical UAV operation (e.g.,
flight control, battery charging, etc.) are omitted for
clarity.
[0026] The example UAV 400 includes an example radio receiver 405,
an example watermark decoder 410, an example communications
transceiver 415, an example data storage 420, an example Global
Positioning System (GPS) receiver 425, and an example monitoring
controller 430. The on-board radio receiver 405 is used by the UAV
400 to receive radio broadcasts when the UAV 400 is performing
radio station monitoring. The example radio receiver 405 may be
used to determine whether a radio station signal is normal or
malfunctioning (e.g., normal radio signal 314 versus weak radio
signal 316 of FIG. 3). The radio receiver 405 can be implemented by
any type(s) and/or number(s) of radio receivers. For example, the
radio receiver 405 may include or be implemented by one or more
Amplitude Modulation (AM) radio receivers, Frequency Modulation
(FM) radio receivers, satellite radio receivers, shortwave radio
receivers, etc., and/or any combination(s) thereof.
[0027] The example watermark decoder 410 is included in the UAV 400
to analyze the signal received from a radio station using the radio
receiver 405 to determine whether a detected watermark has been
properly encoded. In some examples, the watermark decoder 120 is
implemented by a modified CBET watermark decoder, which performs a
sliding 256-millisecond block analysis using a Discrete Fourier
Transform (DFT) to detect CBET watermark symbols. Additionally or
alternatively, in some examples, the watermark decoder 410 may be
used to detect watermark symbols encoded according to other
watermarking technologies. Examples of such watermark decoders that
may be used to implement the watermark decoder 410 include, but are
not limited to, examples disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,359,205,
entitled "Methods and Apparatus to Perform Audio Watermarking and
Watermark Detection and Extraction," which issued on Jan. 22, 2013,
U.S. Pat. No. 8,369,972, entitled "Methods and Apparatus to Perform
Audio Watermarking Detection and Extraction," which issued on Feb.
5, 2013, U.S. Publication No. 2010/0223062, entitled "Methods and
Apparatus to Perform Audio Watermarking and Watermark Detection and
Extraction," which was published on Sep. 2, 2010, U.S. Pat. No.
6,871,180, entitled "Decoding of Information in Audio Signals,"
which issued on Mar. 22, 2005, U.S. Pat. No. 5,764,763, entitled
"Apparatus and Methods for Including Codes in Audio Signals and
Decoding," which issued on Jun. 9, 1998, U.S. Pat. No. 5,574,962,
entitled "Method and Apparatus for Automatically Identifying a
Program Including a Sound Signal," which issued on Nov. 12, 1996,
U.S. Pat. No. 5,581,800, entitled "Method and Apparatus for
Automatically Identifying a Program Including a Sound Signal,"
which issued on Dec. 3, 1996, U.S. Pat. No. 5,787,334, entitled
"Method and Apparatus for Automatically Identifying a Program
Including a Sound Signal," which issued on Jul. 28, 1998, and U.S.
Pat. No. 5,450,490, entitled "Apparatus and Methods for Including
Codes in Audio Signals and Decoding," which issued on Sep. 12,
1995, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their
respective entireties. In some examples, the watermark decoder 410
can determine both the decoded watermark symbols and one or more
symbol strength metrics for the decoded symbols. In some examples,
the watermark decoder 410 may determine statistics of properly
decoded watermarks (e.g., based on number of detected watermarks
with errors, gaps in watermarks, etc.)
[0028] The example communication transceiver 415 is included in the
UAV 400 to report the detected watermarks to a company back office.
The example communications transceiver 415 can be implemented by
any type(s) and/or number(s) of communication transceivers (e.g.,
cellular, Wi-Fi, satellite, Bluetooth, etc., or any combination
thereof). The example data storage 420 is included in the UAV 400
to store information such as, for example, the decoded watermark
symbols, the schedules, flight paths, home base location(s),
station location(s), etc. The GPS receiver 425 is included in the
UAV 400 to navigate to radio stations based on real-time specified
flight paths (e.g., flight paths 111, 114, 118, 122 of FIG. 1,
flight path 210 of FIG. 2, and flight paths 310 and 312 of FIG. 3),
paths to the home base location(s), etc. The example monitoring
controller 430 is included in the UAV 400 to control the UAV 400
system components (e.g., radio receiver 405, watermark decoder 410,
communications receiver 415, data storage 420, and GPS receiver
425), as disclosed in further detail below.
[0029] FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an example implementation of
the monitoring controller 430 of FIG. 4, which may be used to
implement one or more of the unmanned aerial vehicles in FIGS. 1-3
to perform radio station monitoring in accordance with the
teachings of this disclosure. The example monitoring controller 430
of FIG. 5 includes an example operator 505, an example schedule
retriever 510, an example report generator 515, and an example
flight path identifier 520. The operator 505 is included in the
monitoring controller to control the operation of the UAV 400,
which includes the management of the combined function of the
elements of UAV 400 (e.g., radio receiver 405, watermark decoder
410, communications transceiver 415, GPS receiver 425, etc.). For
example, given that these elements of the UAV 400 perform their
function separately, the operator 505 of the monitoring controller
430 processes the information received (e.g., from the back office)
and manages operation of the UAV 400 based on, for example, the
flight schedule, the UAV conditions (e.g., power consumption),
etc.
[0030] The monitoring controller 430 also includes a schedule
retriever 510 to receive and process one or more schedules
communicated by the back office to the UAV 400. For example, the
schedule retriever 510 may perform schedule updates (e.g., via push
and/or pull download techniques) to allow the flight path of the
UAV 400 to change over time, to allow for real-time adjustment of
the flight path depending on instructions received from the back
office and implemented by the UAV 400, etc. The monitoring
controller 430 also includes a report generator 515 to generate one
or more monitoring reports to send to a remote receiver (e.g., back
office) using the communications transceiver 415 when, for example,
radio station monitoring conditions have been met. The monitoring
controller 430 also includes a flight path identifier 520 to
identify the UAV 400 flight path, using the GPS receiver 425.
[0031] FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an example
configuration 600 of the example UAV 400 of FIG. 4 (which may
implement one or more of the unmanned aerial vehicles of FIGS. 1-3)
to perform radio station monitoring. In the example configuration
600, the unmanned aerial vehicle 400 which is located at an example
home base 604 may be configured using the UAV monitoring controller
430 of FIG. 4 based on instructions received from an example back
office 612. The instructions may include the schedule that the
example UAV 400 is instructed to follow during deployment to a
radio station (e.g., radio station A of FIG. 6). For example, when
the UAV 400 is located at the home base 604, the back office 612
can establish communication 614, 615 via the example network 616
with the UAV 400 home base 604, which can communicate with the UAV
controller 430 using, for example, a short-range signal 608 (e.g.,
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, infrared, mobile cellular and/or cabled
connection, etc.), allowing the home base 604 to act as a relay
between the back office 612 and the UAV 400. Additionally, the home
base 602 can communicate 603 with a terminal 602 to allow, for
example, a human operator to configure the UAV directly from the
home base 604. Once the UAV 400 is deployed to a radio station
(e.g., radio station A), any further communication 618 between the
UAV 400 and the back office 612 can occur using the network 616.
The example network 616 may be implemented using any suitable wired
and/or wireless network(s) including, for example, one or more data
buses, one or more Local Area Networks (LANs), one or more wireless
LANs, one or more cellular networks, the Internet, etc. For
example, once the UAV 400 has completed monitoring of radio station
A, the UAV controller 430 manages the process of retrieving the
stored data (e.g., watermarks decoded using the watermark decoder
410 and stored in data storage 420), generating the report to send
to the back office 612 using the report generator 515, and
communicating the report via network 616 to the back office 612
using the communications transceiver 415.
[0032] While an example manner of implementing unmanned aerial
vehicles 108, 208, and 308 of FIGS. 1-3 is illustrated by the
example UAV 400 of FIGS. 4-5, one or more of the elements,
processes and/or devices illustrated in FIGS. 4-5 may be combined,
divided, re-arranged, omitted, eliminated and/or implemented in any
other way. Further, the example radio receiver 405, the example
watermark decoder 410, the example communications transceiver 415,
the example data storage 420, the example GPS receiver 425, the
example monitoring controller 430, the example operator 505, the
example schedule retriever 510, the example report generator 515,
and the example flight path identifier 520 and/or, more
generically, the example unmanned aerial vehicle 400 of FIGS. 4-5
may be implemented by hardware, software, firmware and/or any
combination of hardware, software and/or firmware. Thus, for
example, any of the example radio receiver 405, the example
watermark decoder 410, the example communications transceiver 415,
the example data storage 420, the example GPS receiver 425, the
example monitoring controller 430, the example operator 505, the
example schedule retriever 510, the example report generator 515,
the example flight path identifier 520 and/or, more generically,
the example unmanned aerial vehicle 400 of FIGS. 4-5 could be
implemented by one or more analog or digital circuit(s), logic
circuits, programmable processor(s), programmable controller(s),
graphics processing unit(s) (GPU(s)), digital signal processor(s)
(DSP(s)), application specific integrated circuit(s) (ASIC(s)),
programmable logic device(s) (PLD(s)) and/or field programmable
logic device(s) (FPLD(s)). When reading any of the apparatus or
system claims of this patent to cover a purely software and/or
firmware implementation, at least one of the example UAV 400, the
example radio receiver 405, the example watermark decoder 410, the
example communications transceiver 415, the example data storage
420, the example GPS receiver 425, the example monitoring
controller 430, the example operator 505, the example schedule
retriever 510, the example report generator 515, and/or the example
flight path identifier 520 is/are hereby expressly defined to
include a non-transitory computer readable storage device or
storage disk such as a memory, a digital versatile disk (DVD), a
compact disk (CD), a Blu-ray disk, etc. including the software
and/or firmware. Further still, the example unmanned aerial vehicle
400 may include one or more elements, processes and/or devices in
addition to, or instead of, those illustrated in FIGS. 4-5, and/or
may include more than one of any or all of the illustrated
elements, processes and devices. As used herein, the phrase "in
communication," including variations thereof, encompasses direct
communication and/or indirect communication through one or more
intermediary components, and does not require direct physical
(e.g., wired) communication and/or constant communication, but
rather additionally includes selective communication at periodic
intervals, scheduled intervals, aperiodic intervals, and/or
one-time events.
[0033] Flowcharts representative of example machine readable
instructions for implementing the unmanned aerial vehicle 400 of
FIGS. 4-5 are shown in FIGS. 7-10, respectively. The
machine-readable instructions may be one or more executable
programs or portion(s) of an executable program for execution by a
processor such as the processor 806 shown in the example processor
platform 800 discussed below in connection with FIGS. 7-10. The
program may be embodied in software stored on a non-transitory
computer readable storage medium such as a CD-ROM, a floppy disk, a
hard drive, a digital versatile disk (DVD), a Blu-ray disk, or a
memory associated with the processor 1106, but the entire program
and/or parts thereof could alternatively be executed by a device
other than the processor 1106 and/or embodied in firmware or
dedicated hardware. Further, although the example program is
described with reference to the flowcharts illustrated in FIGS.
7-10, many other methods of implementing the example unmanned
aerial vehicle 400 may alternatively be used. For example, the
order of execution of the blocks may be changed, and/or some of the
blocks described may be changed, eliminated, or combined.
Additionally or alternatively, any or all of the blocks may be
implemented by one or more hardware circuits (e.g., discrete and/or
integrated analog and/or digital circuitry, an FPGA, an ASIC, a
comparator, an operational-amplifier (op-amp), a logic circuit,
etc.) structured to perform the corresponding operation without
executing software or firmware.
[0034] The machine readable instructions described herein may be
stored in one or more of a compressed format, an encrypted format,
a fragmented format, a packaged format, etc. Machine readable
instructions as described herein may be stored as data (e.g.,
portions of instructions, code, representations of code, etc.) that
may be utilized to create, manufacture, and/or produce machine
executable instructions. For example, the machine readable
instructions may be fragmented and stored on one or more storage
devices and/or computing devices (e.g., servers). The machine
readable instructions may require one or more of installation,
modification, adaptation, updating, combining, supplementing,
configuring, decryption, decompression, unpacking, distribution,
reassignment, etc. in order to make them directly readable and/or
executable by a computing device and/or other machine. For example,
the machine readable instructions may be stored in multiple parts,
which are individually compressed, encrypted, and stored on
separate computing devices, wherein the parts when decrypted,
decompressed, and combined form a set of executable instructions
that implement a program such as that described herein. In another
example, the machine readable instructions may be stored in a state
in which they may be read by a computer, but require addition of a
library (e.g., a dynamic link library (DLL)), a software
development kit (SDK), an application programming interface (API),
etc. in order to execute the instructions on a particular computing
device or other device. In another example, the machine readable
instructions may need to be configured (e.g., settings stored, data
input, network addresses recorded, etc.) before the machine
readable instructions and/or the corresponding program(s) can be
executed in whole or in part. Thus, the disclosed machine readable
instructions and/or corresponding program(s) are intended to
encompass such machine readable instructions and/or program(s)
regardless of the particular format or state of the machine
readable instructions and/or program(s) when stored or otherwise at
rest or in transit.
[0035] As mentioned above, the example processes of FIGS. 7, 8, 9
and/or 10 may be implemented using executable instructions (e.g.,
computer and/or machine readable instructions) stored on a
non-transitory computer and/or machine readable medium such as a
hard disk drive, a flash memory, a read-only memory (ROM), a
compact disk (CD), a digital versatile disk (DVD), a cache, a
random-access memory (RAM) and/or any other storage device or
storage disk in which information is stored for any duration (e.g.,
for extended time periods, permanently, for brief instances, for
temporarily buffering, and/or for caching of the information). As
used herein, the term non-transitory computer readable storage
medium is expressly defined to include any type of computer
readable storage device and/or storage disk and to exclude
propagating signals and to exclude transmission media.
[0036] "Including" and "comprising" (and all forms and tenses
thereof) are used herein to be open ended terms. Thus, whenever a
claim employs any form of "include" or "comprise" (e.g., comprises,
includes, comprising, including, having, etc.) as a preamble or
within a claim recitation of any kind, it is to be understood that
additional elements, terms, etc. may be present without falling
outside the scope of the corresponding claim or recitation. As used
herein, when the phrase "at least" is used as the transition term
in, for example, a preamble of a claim, it is open-ended in the
same manner as the term "comprising" and "including" are open
ended. The term "and/or" when used, for example, in a form such as
A, B, and/or C refers to any combination or subset of A, B, C such
as (1) A alone, (2) B alone, (3) C alone, (4) A with B, (5) A with
C, (6) B with C, and (7) A with B and with C. As used herein in the
context of describing structures, components, items, objects and/or
things, the phrase "at least one of A and B" is intended to refer
to implementations including any of (1) at least one A, (2) at
least one B, and (3) at least one A and at least one B. Similarly,
as used herein in the context of describing structures, components,
items, objects and/or things, the phrase "at least one of A or B"
is intended to refer to implementations including any of (1) at
least one A, (2) at least one B, and (3) at least one A and at
least one B. As used herein in the context of describing the
performance or execution of processes, instructions, actions,
activities and/or steps, the phrase "at least one of A and B" is
intended to refer to implementations including any of (1) at least
one A, (2) at least one B, and (3) at least one A and at least one
B. Similarly, as used herein in the context of describing the
performance or execution of processes, instructions, actions,
activities and/or steps, the phrase "at least one of A or B" is
intended to refer to implementations including any of (1) at least
one A, (2) at least one B, and (3) at least one A and at least one
B.
[0037] FIG. 7 is a flowchart 700 representative of example
machine-readable instructions that may be executed by the unmanned
aerial vehicle 400 of FIGS. 4-5 to monitor multiple radio stations
according to a schedule (e.g., such as when implementing the UAV
108 of FIG. 1). At block 702, the UAV 400 of FIG. 1 receives
instructions to visit multiple radio station locations at, for
example, a specified frequency. For example, the UAV 400 may be
configured by the monitoring controller 430 of FIG. 4 to visit the
radio stations A-D on an hourly basis. At block 704, the UAV 400
deploys to a radio station, such as the first station (e.g., radio
station A) that the UAV 108 is programmed to visit. For example,
the UAV 400 may be configured using the UAV monitoring controller
430 of FIG. 4, based on instructions sent by the back office 612,
to visit a radio station site on a schedule that can be, for
example, cyclic or change in real-time based on monitoring needs.
At block 706, the UAV 400 is guided to visit the first radio
station location using the GPS receiver 425 of FIG. 4, which is
managed by the flight path identifier 520. In some examples, the
flight path taken by the UAV 400 (e.g., flight path 111 of FIG. 1)
may be performed in real-time if an operator is operating the UAV
400 remotely. In some examples, the flight path is based on a
global positioning system auto-pilot flight path. The flight path
taken by the UAV 400 can further be determined by the flight path
identifier 520 based on the schedule retrieved using the schedule
retriever 510. At block 708, the UAV 400 arrives at the radio
station location at a designated time 112 and receives the radio
station (e.g., radio station A) broadcast using the radio receiver
405. At block 710, the UAV 400 detects the watermarks using the
watermark decoder 410 in the radio broadcast received using the
radio receiver 405. The UAV 400 may store any information that
needs to be transmitted to a back office using the data storage
420. At block 712, the UAV 400 reports, using the example
communications transceiver 415, the watermarks detected using the
watermark decoder 410 to the back office for processing after a
report is generated using the report generator 515. If, at block
714, not all of the radio stations which the UAV 108 was programmed
to visit were monitored by the UAV 400, the UAV 400 proceeds on a
flight path (e.g., flight path 114 of FIG. 1) to the next radio
station (e.g., radio station B), in order to arrive to the station
by the time 116. Once the UAV 400 performs monitoring of all the
stations (e.g., stations A-D), the UAV 400 can return to the UAV
parking position (e.g., home base), at block 716, until the next
scheduled monitoring deployment. In some examples, the UAV 400
continues to re-visit the radio stations if the next visiting time
point 128 requires that the UAV 400 leaves the last radio station
monitored (e.g., radio station D) and proceeds directly to the
first station monitored (e.g., radio station A).
[0038] FIG. 8 is a flowchart 800 representative of example
machine-readable instructions that may be executed by the unmanned
aerial vehicle 400 (e.g., when implementing the UAV 208 of FIG. 2)
to monitor a particular radio station to which the UAV 400 is
dedicated. At block 802, the UAV 400 receives an assignment from a
back office to monitor a single radio station (e.g., radio station
A of FIG. 2), such that the UAV 400 is dedicated specifically to
radio station A. For example, the monitoring controller 430 of FIG.
4 configures the UAV 400 based on a schedule provided by a back
office. At block 804, the UAV 400 deploys to the radio station
(e.g., radio station A) along a flight path (e.g., flight path 210)
determined using the flight path identifier 520, using the GPS
receiver 425 of FIG. 4, if it is configured to monitor that radio
station. At block 806, the UAV 400 parks at the radio station
(e.g., UAV parking 212) to perform the monitoring on-site. In some
examples, the UAV 400 may remain parked at the designated radio
station until it is recalled back to its home base (e.g., home base
209). In some examples, the UAV 400 may be programmed to spend a
threshold amount of time at the radio station it is assigned to
monitor before returning to the home base 209 to, for example,
refuel or receive maintenance. At block 808, the UAV 400 detects
watermarks in the radio station (e.g., radio station A) broadcast,
using the watermark decoder 410 of FIG. 4. The UAV 400 may store
any decoded signals or other information using a data storage 420.
At block 610, the UAV 400 reports the detected watermarks to the
back office using the communications transceiver 415, after a
report is generated using the report generator 515.
[0039] FIG. 9 is a flowchart 900 representative of example
machine-readable instructions that may be executed by the UAV 400
(e.g., such as when implementing the UAV 308 of FIG. 3) to deploy
to a radio station on an as-needed basis. At block 902, the UAV 400
is parked at a home base awaiting deployment to a radio station for
monitoring purposes. If, at block 904, there are any suspected
radio-frequency (RF) malfunctions at a radio station (e.g., radio
stations A-E of FIG. 3), the UAV 400 is deployed to the radio
station. For example, during radio station signal interception,
there may be a detection that one of the stations (e.g., radio
station C) is experiencing signal problems 316 while other stations
in the area (e.g., stations A, B, D, and E) may have normal
broadcasting signals 314. At block 906, a malfunction in the
radio-frequency signal initiates the UAV 400 deployment to the
radio station experiencing RF-related malfunctions (e.g., radio
station C). For example, the home base or back office can send a
command to the controller 430 causing the UAV 400 to be configured
to follow a new schedule and flight path. The UAV 400 uses the GPS
receiver 425 of FIG. 4 to be guided to the station location based
on the flight path identifier 520, at block 908, based on a
predefined flight path 310, or based on an operator-based flight
path. At block 910, the UAV 400 checks the radio station's antenna
signal strength to confirm any RF-related signal malfunctions, such
as determining variations in radio-frequency signal strength. At
block 912, the UAV 400 checks for watermark detectability using the
watermark decoder 410 of FIG. 4. The UAV 400 stores any information
regarding the radio station monitoring results in the data storage
420. At block 914, the UAV 400 reports the status of watermark
detectability (e.g., presence of a watermark error) and signal
strength to the back office using the communications transceiver
415. At block 916, the RF malfunction is confirmed or denied, and
the UAV 400 either returns to the home base if there are no further
signal malfunctions detected, or the UAV 400 engages in a detailed
assessment of the RF-related signal malfunction occurring at the
radio station of interest. At block 918, the UAV 400 may perform a
fly-around the radio station using the flight path 312 to engage in
monitoring of different quadrants which are experiencing RF
malfunction as part of a troubleshooting process. For example, the
radiation pattern of a radio station antenna may be assessed by the
UAV 400 to determine how the pattern is changing and how far it
reaches, since this affects areas that may not be able to receive
the radio station signal. Based on the detected respective areas of
RF-related signal malfunction, the UAV 400 may engage in further
troubleshooting processes, at block 920. For example, the
troubleshooting operation can include re-examining the areas
experiencing RF-related signal malfunctions and performing
assessments of the areas that are experiencing the RF-related
malfunctions (e.g., calculating total broadcast coverage areas with
limited signal, etc.) Reports of the detailed monitoring performed
by the UAV 400 can be submitted to the back office for further
evaluation and subsequent performance of steps to apply necessary
corrections to the signal. For example, the UAV 400 may assist in
the correction of the signal by re-setting the signal via the radio
station. Once the signal is corrected, the UAV 400 may return to
the home base or perform further monitoring to ensure that the
signal quality and watermark encoding are proper. If the
troubleshooting steps at block 920 do not remedy the RF-related
signal malfunctions, other UAVs may be deployed to the radio
station experiencing technical difficulties or a representative may
be scheduled to visit the site.
[0040] FIG. 10 is a flowchart 1000 representative of example
machine-readable instructions that may be executed by the UAV 400
(e.g., in the example of FIG. 6) using the monitoring controller
430 to perform unmanned aerial vehicle configuration. At block
1002, the UAV 400 receives configuration information from the back
office 612. The configuration information is implemented using the
UAV monitoring controller 430 to set the flight path and flight
schedule. Once the configuration step is completed at block 1004,
the UAV operator 505 of the monitoring controller 430 retrieves the
schedule, using the schedule retriever 510, and the flight path,
using the flight path identifier 520, at block 1006. At block 1008,
the UAV 400 arrives at the designated radio station using the GPS
receiver 425 to complete the flight path retrieved from the flight
path identifier 520. At block 1010, the UAV 400 performs radio
station monitoring by receiving the radio broadcast using the radio
receiver 405, and performing watermark detection and decoding using
the watermark decoder 410, the results of the decoding being stored
in the data storage 420. At block 1012, the UAV controller 430
determines whether monitoring is complete and monitoring conditions
have been met that allow for a report generator 515 to generate a
report that is sent to the back office via the network 616. For
example, the monitoring conditions may include the time of
monitoring, the radio station location, the decoded watermarks, any
assessment of the watermarks (e.g., statistical assessment of
number of watermarks with error, watermarks with gaps, etc.), etc.
If, at block 1012, the monitoring conditions are not identified for
incorporating into a report to the sent to the back office, the UAV
400 continues to perform monitoring at block 1010. If, at block
1012, data needed to generate a report to be sent to the back
office has been gathered, the report is generated using the report
generator 515 and transmitted to the back office using
communications transceiver 415 via the network 616, at block
1014.
[0041] FIG. 11 is a block diagram of an example processing platform
structured to execute the instructions of FIG. 7-10 to implement
the example UAV 400 of FIG. 4. The processor platform 1100 can be,
for example, a computer, a self-learning machine (e.g., a neural
network), a mobile device (e.g., a cell phone, a smart phone, a
tablet such as an iPad.TM.), a personal digital assistant (PDA), or
any other type of computing device.
[0042] The processor platform 1100 of the illustrated example
includes a processor 1106. The processor 1106 of the illustrated
example is hardware. For example, the processor 1106 can be
implemented by one or more integrated circuits, logic circuits,
microprocessors, GPUs, DSPs, or controllers from any desired family
or manufacturer. The hardware processor may be a semiconductor
based (e.g., silicon based) device. In this example, the processor
1106 implements the watermark decoder 410 and the monitoring
controller 430.
[0043] The processor 1106 of the illustrated example includes a
local memory 1108 (e.g., a cache). The processor 1106 of the
illustrated example is in communication with a main memory
including a volatile memory 1102 and a non-volatile memory 1104 via
a bus 1118. The volatile memory 1102 may be implemented by
Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM), Dynamic Random
Access Memory (DRAM), RAMBUS.RTM. Dynamic Random Access Memory
(RDRAM.RTM.) and/or any other type of random access memory device.
The non-volatile memory 1104 may be implemented by flash memory
and/or any other desired type of memory device. Access to the main
memory 1102 and 1104 is controlled by a memory controller.
[0044] The processor platform 1100 of the illustrated example also
includes an interface circuit 1114. The interface circuit 1114 may
be implemented by any type of interface standard, such as an
Ethernet interface, a universal serial bus (USB), a Bluetooth.RTM.
interface, a near field communication (NFC) interface, and/or a PCI
express interface.
[0045] In the illustrated example, one or more input devices 1112
are connected to the interface circuit 1114. The input device(s)
1112 permit(s) a user to enter data and commands into the processor
1106. The input device(s) can be implemented by, for example, an
audio sensor, a microphone, a camera (still or video), a keypad, a
button, a touchscreen, isopoint and/or a voice recognition
system.
[0046] One or more output devices 1116 are also connected to the
interface circuit 1114 of the illustrated example. The output
devices 1116 can be implemented, for example, by display devices
(e.g., a light emitting diode (LED), an organic light emitting
diode (OLED), a liquid crystal display (LCD), an in-place switching
(IPS) display, a touchscreen, etc.), a tactile output device,
and/or speaker, etc. The interface circuit 1114 of the illustrated
example, thus, may include a graphics driver card, a graphics
driver chip or a graphics driver processor.
[0047] The interface circuit 1114 of the illustrated example also
includes a communication device such as a transmitter, a receiver,
a transceiver, a modem, a residential gateway, a wireless access
point, and/or network interface to facilitate exchange of data with
external machines (e.g., computing devices of any kind) via a
network 1124. The communication can be via, for example, an
Ethernet connection, a satellite system, a line-of-site wireless
system, a cellular telephone system, etc. In this example, the
interface circuit 1114 includes the communications transceiver 415,
the GPS receiver 425, and the radio receiver 405.
[0048] The processor platform 1100 of the illustrated example also
includes one or more mass storage devices 1110 for storing software
and/or data. Examples of such mass storage devices 1110 include
floppy disk drives, hard drive disks, compact disk drives, Blu-ray
disk drives, redundant array of independent disks (RAID) systems,
and digital versatile disk (DVD) drives. In this example, the mass
storage 1110 includes the data storage 420.
[0049] The machine executable instructions 1120 of FIGS. 5-7 may be
stored in the mass storage device 1110, in the volatile memory
1102, in the non-volatile memory 1104, and/or on a removable
non-transitory computer readable storage medium such as a CD or
DVD.
[0050] Although certain example methods, apparatus and system have
been disclosed herein, the scope of coverage of this patent is not
limited thereto. On the contrary, this patent covers all methods,
apparatus and articles of manufacture fairly falling within the
scope of the claims of this patent.
* * * * *